{"id":75394,"date":"2018-11-21T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T14:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=75394"},"modified":"2018-11-21T17:25:15","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T22:25:15","slug":"atlantic-american-exorcism-priests-are-fielding-more-requests-than-ever-for-help-with-demonic-possession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=75394","title":{"rendered":"(Atlantic) American Exorcism&#8211;Priests are fielding more requests than ever for help with demonic possession"},"content":{"rendered":"<section id=\"article-section-4\">&#8230;far from being confined to a past of Demiurges and evil eyes, belief in demonic possession is widespread in the United States today. Polls conducted in recent decades\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/4483\/Americans-Belief-Psychic-Paranormal-Phenomena-Over-Last-Decade.aspx?g_source=\" data-omni-click=\"r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'2',r'573943'\">by Gallup<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/today.yougov.com\/topics\/philosophy\/articles-reports\/2013\/09\/17\/poll-results-exorcism\" data-omni-click=\"r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'3',r'573943'\">the data firm YouGov<\/a>\u00a0suggest that roughly half of Americans believe demonic possession is real. The percentage who believe in the devil is even higher, and in fact has been growing: Gallup polls show that the number rose from 55 percent in 1990 to 70 percent in 2007.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pullquote instapaper_ignore\">The official exorcist for Indianapolis has received 1,700 requests so far in 2018.<\/aside>\n<p>Perhaps as a result, demand for exorcisms\u2014the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/303143556_Demons_and_Exorcisms_in_the_Roman_Catholic_Mind-Set_Probing_the_Western_Demonological_Mentality\" data-omni-click=\"r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'4',r'573943'\">Catholic Church\u2019s antidote to demonic possession<\/a>\u2014seems to be growing as well. Though the Church does not keep official statistics, the exorcists I interviewed for this article attest to fielding more pleas for help every year.<\/p>\n<p>Father Vincent Lampert, the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncregister.com\/daily-news\/us-exorcists-demonic-activity-on-the-rise\" data-omni-click=\"r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'5',r'573943'\">official exorcist<\/a>\u00a0for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, told me in early October that he\u2019d received 1,700 phone or email requests for exorcisms in 2018, by far the most he\u2019s ever gotten in one year. Father Gary Thomas\u2014a priest whose training as an exorcist in Rome was documented in\u00a0<i>The Rite<\/i>, a book published in 2009 and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.franciscanmedia.org\/the-rite-the-story-behind-the-film\/\" data-omni-click=\"r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'6',r'573943'\">made into a movie in 2011<\/a>\u2014said that he gets at least a dozen requests a week. Several other priests reported that without support from church staff and volunteers, their exorcism ministries would quickly swallow up their entire weekly schedules.<\/p>\n<p>The Church has been training new exorcists in Chicago, Rome, and Manila. Thomas told me that in 2011 the U.S. had fewer than 15 known Catholic exorcists. Today, he said, there are well over 100. Other exorcists I spoke with put the number between 70 and 100. (Again, no official statistics exist, and most dioceses conceal the identity of their appointed exorcist, to avoid unwanted attention.)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"article-section-5\">In October of last year, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had\u00a0<i>Exorcisms and Related Supplications<\/i>\u2014a handbook containing the rite of exorcism\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/cruxnow.com\/church-in-the-usa\/2017\/10\/24\/usccb-publishes-official-english-language-translation-exorcism-rite\/\" data-omni-click=\"r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'7',r'573943'\">translated into English<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2018\/12\/catholic-exorcisms-on-the-rise\/573943\/?utm_source=twb\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Catholic Exorcisms Are Gaining Popularity in the U.S. &#8211; American Exorcism: Priests are fielding more requests than ever for help with demonic possession, and a centuries-old practice is finding new footing in the modern world. By Mike Mariani, The Atlantic <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XatIbOI6Un\">https:\/\/t.co\/XatIbOI6Un<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Melbie Toast (Melinda Applegate) (@MelbieToast) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MelbieToast\/status\/1065164556190679040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 21, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230;far from being confined to a past of Demiurges and evil eyes, belief in demonic possession is widespread in the United States today. Polls conducted in recent decades\u00a0by Gallup\u00a0and\u00a0the data firm YouGov\u00a0suggest that roughly half of Americans believe demonic possession<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=75394\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[209,435,184,177,108,165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americau-s-a","category-ministry-of-the-ordained","category-parish-ministry","category-pastoral-theology","category-religion-culture","category-theodicy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75394"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75398,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75394\/revisions\/75398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}